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Glad he's ok, that one looked scarier than most. Usually you see at least a slight movement in the legs, but this time they were just still.

Unfortunately I do have to agree with @THE DUKE he is the one to blame for this one. Not saying he at all deserved it, but it was his poor technique. And yet so many still tackle that way. I don't get it.

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Man I was sick to my stomach watching that. Glad it’s not as bad as once thought. What’s the timeline on that.

Comparisons made to Tommy Maddox suggest maybe a week or two. Obviously every case is different and we still don't know much right now, but hopefully he'll be back on his feet and healthy before too long.

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Thanks to the many-faced god that it wasn't more serious. I'm still not over David Pollack's promising career ending early. One of the toughest things in sports (For me at least) is seeing young talent wasted. Shaizer is an absolute baller on the field. Hopefully he learns to improve his tackling form...

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Thanks to the many-faced god that it wasn't more serious. I'm still not over David Pollack's promising career ending early. One of the toughest things in sports (For me at least) is seeing young talent wasted. Shaizer is an absolute baller on the field. Hopefully he learns to improve his tackling form...

Yeah, I'll agree with that. He leads with the crown of his helmet way too much. He needs to work on his form tackling. It'll be hard for him, but hopefully this will scare him straight. I'm more interested in Shazier living a normal life than his performance on the field.

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Last night’s encouraging update from the Steelers omitted reference to the question of whether linebacker Ryan Shazier has movement or feeling in his legs. Apparently, he’s not yet where he needs to be regarding that critical aspect of his overall recovery.

This implies that there has indeed been some type of spinal-cord injury that has limited full use of his legs, at least for now. Here’s hoping that improvement will continue, and that Shazier will fully and completely recover.

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The fact that he didn't move his legs at all means it the cord was definitely contused. Fortunately, reports are that he has regained some movement already this morning - which is great news. The fact he's not back to full strength, though, means the contusion was significant.

That has 4 implications:

1. This early, the hope for a full recovery is very real. Swelling is still there, so the hope is as the swelling goes down, the pressure on the cord is what's causing paralysis.

2. Playing-wise, there's no way any sane doctor will clear him until the contusion is fully healed, given the severity of the injury. It would be absolutely shocking if he got cleared even in the regular season. Maddox was a different case, because it was a neck contusion - which is more commonly seen, and in some ways scarier, because it can leave a player quadriparetic (arms & legs) - but here's the thing - Maddox had regained function 30 mins after he was taken to hospital - http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/maddox-is-nfl-comeback-player-1.359779. It took hours for Shazier to regain function. It's not an exact formula, obviously, but that alone means the injury here was more severe locally. Maybe it's all swelling and he'll be fine, but it really could be apples to oranges using Maddox as a comp from severity alone.

3. Both the location of the injury (lower back) and the position Shazier plays (ILB) factors in here. So few injuries involve a mid-lower back spinal cord contusion - so they will likely have done other tests to see why it happened there (because most of the time, the mild version is a neck stinger, the worst is neck involvement, back involvement they need to see if there's a specific local reason why that got affected). Shazier will need to be cleared in that respect, AND then be cleared for LB play. I don't know any sane doc would do that until the swelling's down, the contusion is completely gone, and Shazier shows 100 percent return of function.

4. Frankly, I don't know if a doc clears Shazier if he can't learn to tackle head up (remember his hit on Gio Bernard 2 years ago was just as dangerous - it just happened to injure Bernard worse than him, but it was another head-down, head first hit). Obviously, that's not a certainty, but you have to be worried that Shazier can't change his stripes when it comes to his risk of tackling head-down, given his technique is a huge part of the risk with him (and others).

The most important outcome is that Shazier returns to a normal life. His progress so far is very encouraging - but this is a far, far, different animal than Tommy Maddox - severity of presentation, location (which calls into question if there's another local reason why it happened there), and of course, the position Shazier has to play. The fact PIT isn't disclosing all the info means there is still uncertainty. Here's to hoping the best news in the next 2-3 days (walking and back to normal) - but even then, the timeline to recovery to play is going to be a LOT murkier than pointing the Maddox case. Still, most important is getting back to a full normal life outside of football - really great chances of that from the news so far.